Radio Programming Ideas For Personalities and Programmers, Especially Country Radio Broadcasters.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Natalie Maines Doesn't Want To Be A Part Of Country Music

Entertainment Weekly makes it sound like she likes being in the center of controversy more than she likes being successful with our mass audience.

I think [the song on their new LP titled ''Not Ready To Make Nice''] is just very honest.

Let's say the album comes out and everyone who was outraged about your comments embraces it with open arms. Are you gonna go back to Nashville and say, ''Hey, we're back!'' Or has this completely altered the course you guys were on?For me as a person, [The Incident has] completely altered the course I was on. For me to be in country music to begin with was not who I was. I liked Martie and Emily's playing, but I did not grow up liking country music. And I guess I was ignorant to the fact that the stereotypes behind country music were true — and it was disappointing. And so at this stage, I can never... I would be cheating myself and not setting a good example for my children to go back to something that I don't wholeheartedly believe in. So I'm pretty much done. They've shown their true colors. I like lots of country music, but as far as the industry and everything that happened... I couldn't want to be farther away from that. And it's easier when you're financially set, because you can be a little more ballsy, and just do what you want to do. I don't want people to think that me not wanting to be a part of country music is any sort of revenge. It is not. It is totally me being who I am, and not wanting to compromise myself and hate my life. All of my anger... I've pretty much gotten past that. Writing the album was therapy.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I disagree with your take on the interview. I don't think EW makes it sound like Natalie doesn't care about the country audience, she just doesn't care about the country music "industry". Maines mentions several times that she has nothing against country audiences or country music, it's just the business side--And I can't blame her. We're constantly thinking that artists owe us for making them famous, but it works both ways. Country radio got a lot of listeners and a lot of buzz from the Chicks. The minute they made one wrong move we pulled the rug out from under them. Cumulus put an instant stop on their music and many other stations followed. Now we're supposed to expect them to come happily skipping back to us? If it had been the other way and the Chicks chose to abandon country radio, would we be so willing to go skipping back to them?

And just because Natalie says they won't actively seek out country audiences, if our listeners want to take them back and the album is good and worth spinning on a country station, who says we can't spin a few singles and win them back?

How can we expect Maines to care about the audience when they don't care about her? She spoke her mind, and instead of reacting in a mature, free-thinking manner by allowing her to have a difference of opinion, the audience (by and large) developed an immediate, vehement hatred for her and her group. The enjoyment of their music was forgotten in an instant.

It's difficult to blame programmers, as they (in most cases) were reacting to what their audience was telling them at the time. Have things changed? Perhaps. Let's not be so scared that we can't risk finding out.